1. Technical Field
The invention relates generally to data processing systems that employ virtualization and sharing of computing resources. More specifically, the invention relates to systems, products, and methods for configuring network communications in a logically partitioned data processing system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Logical partitioning of a physical data processing system allows utilization of several concurrent instances of one or more operating systems on a single physical processor, thereby allowing the partitioning of a physical data processing system into several independent logical data processing systems capable of running applications in multiple, independent environments simultaneously. For example, logical partitioning makes it possible to run a single application using different sets of data on separate partitions, as if the application was running independently on separate physical systems.
In a known system, the resulting logical structure consists of primary logical partitions (LPARs) and one or more logical subpartitions (sometimes referred to as workload partitions or WPARs) associated with a respective LPAR. Network communication for an LPAR may be achieved by assigning a physical network interface, along with a corresponding network address, to the LPAR. In some systems, a WPAR performs network communications via the physical network interface using an alias network address that is resolved to the LPAR network address. In other words, the LPAR and the WPAR share a common driver stack binding.